In preparing food, it is often desirable to prepare onions by slicing them in strips or chopping them into small pieces. Most commonly, this is done by using a knife. There are other specially-designed devices for chopping foods, but none are particularly well suited to chopping onions.
One exemplary food cutting device is used to cut potatoes for French fries, incorporating a sliding array of rectangular projections that can be pressed downward to push the potato through a grid of blades. This arrangement is common to all French fry cutters, which can also be used to cut other vegetables such as onions. In such devices, the blades and the projections are parallel to each other at all times. One problem with such devices is that there is no integrated reservoir to receive the sliced potatoes as they are pushed through the grid of blades.
There are also presently existing mushroom cutters, including a blade frame and pusher element that are pivotally connected to each other via an elongated handle. Unfortunately, the operation of the device pushes the food onto the countertop or work surface, limiting the amount of food that can be chopped and potentially mashing the food or resulting in an uneven slicing operation. Alternatively, the user must hold the device above the countertop with one hand, and use the other hand to receive the slices as they emerge from the device.
There is therefore a need for an improved food chopping or slicing device, including devices suitable for cutting mushrooms, onions, and the like.